One midnight recently I was beguiled by a pair of radio programmes by
David Attenborough about the controversial Waterside Ape Theory. (I instantly
transposed it in my head to the Shoreline
Ape Theory which I like better and I will use here.) These programmes
challenged the received and scientifically respectable theory that man evolved
from a hair covered quadruped to a smoother skinned bi-ped by surviving on the
dry plains of the African Savannah in the end rearing up onto two legs as he
went about hunting prey and making bloody scraps available for the less skilled
females and children so they could survive into the next generation.
But now the ‘rather suspect’ Shoreline Ape theory has emerged in the last
thirty years, supported by the discovery by palaeontologists of fossil remains
of hominid bi-peds on the lake and sea shorelines of Africa .
The thought is that here on the shoreline the apelike quadrupeds
evolved into upright ape-like
bipeds supplemented their resources on
the lake and sea shorelines by diving in
the shallow waters, harvesting and eating the freely available shellfish from
the rocks. There is logic in this.
Standing up on two legs was much easier in the water; finding food to survive
in this way reduced the life risks and the hard labour of hunting for food by
chasing and killing animals across the threatening savannah.
For the hunter gatherer this easier less physical work meant that as part
of this stage of evolution he- or she (now it was very commonly a she) became accustomed to holding their
breaths for long periods as they dived for their prey underwater. They
developed tiny bones to protect their eardrums, not unlike those developed by
modern deep sea divers.
It seems that the shoreline ape-like bipeds, unlike their land based
hunting ape cousins, are the only species that has a layer subcutaneous fat
under their skins. (Protects them from the cold in the water of course.) Modern
women too have this helpful layer of fat. In this perhaps the shoreline apes were more
like their seagoing mammalian cousins, the whale and the dolphin. This gives us an image of the females buoyed
up by water. Even while heavy or pregnant the females could hunt and swim for
food to provide for their families on a more than equal footing with the males.
This element of evolutionary theory hints that there is another narrative
about how we all evolved. This theory tells us that at least alongside the master-hunter male 'Tarzan' figures of the African Savannah we are also
indebted to the much less macho shoreline ape for the fundamentals of our human
identity.
This is on my mind now because here I am in the sun on the shores of a
sea-lake that leads to the Mediterranean . After that, Africa! In all my life I have taken
every opportunity to spend time by the sea, or within sight of other kinds of water
such as lakes and rivers. I feel at home there. I have an intense affinity with
water.
It so happens that I’ve just published my new novel, The Bad Child, where water and swimming is very significant. In
order to get the details of my story right as well as all this palaeontology, I’ve
researched our human relationship with swimming, reading in particular contemporary
sources which refer to the increasingly popular culture of Wild Swimming where
people swim in ponds, lakes and in the sea, seem to find it a deeply satisfying
way to spend their time
.
The literature of Wild Swimming is obsessive, poetic, and even euphoric.
Some writers allude to pre-memory memories of water being not just there around
and above them but as their natural habitat.
So sitting here by the shoreline I am feeling natural affinity with Dee,
my heroine. And my million times grandmother the Shoreline Ape.
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